Call to worship
Taize Song
Scripture reading: Joshua 24:1-3, 14-25
24:1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God.
24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors--Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor--lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.
24:3a Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.
24:14 "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
24:15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
24:16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods;
24:17 for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed;
24:18 and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
24:19 But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.
24:20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good."
24:21 And the people said to Joshua, "No, we will serve the LORD!"
24:22 Then Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses."
24:23 He said, "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
24:24 The people said to Joshua, "The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey."
24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
For our prayer today, I invite you to join me in a few postures while we pray.
Church, I invite you to cover your eyes, perhaps just hovering your hands over your face, not quite touching. Relax your shoulders and your face.
Holy One who speaks in voices from heaven and in gentle breezes, in writing on the wall and in poor young women, in the creation of the earth and in the messy birth in a stable, we open our ears to how You will speak now in the time of the interim. We know from our faith ancestors, that in these liminal, thin spaces, we are more susceptible to transfigurations. In places where we’d like to pitch a tent, You are known to blind us with light and revelation. And in this long work of community life, it can be difficult and slow to be renewed. Help us endure faithfully here, our hearts refined by the arrival of each new dawn, our feet light and our heart patient.
Now church, bring your fingertips to touch lightly, keeping the palms of your hands apart.
The rhythm of our heart has become hectic, time straining every bit of energy we have left. The industry of distraction makes us forget that we live in a universe, where we are all connected—from the seemingly most inconsequential piece of creation to the expanse of our galaxy, we are all tethered together in You. We confess that we have become converts to the religion of stress and its deity of progress. May we have courage to turn aside from it all, if only for this moment, and to discover what we must do together, to find our way home. May we unfurl ourselves into the grace of beginning anew.
Now church, bring your hands over your heart in a posture of devotion.
With reverence, we ask that the unknown between us might flower into discovery and lead us beyond the familiar field of weariness and habit. And may we be people of justice and peace, united in love and care for our neighbor, following Christ, who holds us all together.
And now we pray the prayer that our brother and redeemer Jesus taught us to pray…
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Scripture reading: Psalm 78:1-7
78:1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
78:3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
78:4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
78:5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
78:6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
78:7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
"Be Thou My Vision" (CH 595)
Scripture: Amos 5:18-24
5:18 Alas for you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light;
5:19 as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake.
5:20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
5:21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
5:22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon.
5:23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
5:24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
"O God of Vision" (CH 288)
Communion
Walk Through Prayer Stations
I invite you stand for this next part of our service, in which we will participate in a prayer square. Walking a prayer square is a prayer practice that moves our bodies into proverbial corners or points on which to focus. When move in a square, it also allows us to turn a solidly different direction. We will walk a prayer square together today.
Our first prayer will be in the spot we’re in right now. We’ll stand here for a few moments in prayer, some moments communal, some moments private. When the moment concludes, Gini will play a line from the Doxology as a signal for us to move clockwise. We ask that you keep socially-distanced as you move to a circle in the next section, marked by the chalk on the ground. We will repeat this prayer movement every until we are back in our section. When we get to a new point in the square, I will provide a prompt for your personal prayer.
For our first moment of prayer, we will pray for our congregation. I invite you to hold Azle Christian Church before God. Don’t worry about diagnosing the needs or telling what God to do. Just simply hold our church before God. As you hold it before God, hear this blessing of prayer spoken over the church,
“May the light of Christ go before you and behind you,
Beneath you and above you
On your right and on your left
When you rise and when you lie down.
May the light of Christ be with you
May the light of Christ be in you.”
*Doxology*
For our next moment of prayer, we will pray for our local community in Azle. I invite you to imagine a place, a person, a pocket of Azle and hold it before God. Don’t worry about specifics—simply hold Azle before God and hear this blessing:
“Christ, as a light
Illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
Overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
On my left and my right
This day be within and without me
Lowly and meek, yet all-powerful
Christ as a light
As a shield
Beside me
On my left and my right.”
*Doxology*
For our next moment of prayer, we will pray for our elected leaders. I invite you to hold any, all, some elected leaders before God. Don’t worry about diagnosing the needs or telling God what to do. Just simply hold them before God in silence.
*Doxology*
For our final moment of prayer, we pray for the vulnerable among us: the sick, the hungry, the children, the elderly, the poor, the undocumented, LGBTQ+ teens, the housing insecure, and many more. Hold a person, a group, a need before God. I will end our prayer walk with the Lord’s Prayer as it is recorded in New Zealand’s Anglican Book of Common Prayer, so it will be different than the way our church recites it. As you hold it before God, hear this blessing of prayer spoken over the most vulnerable people in our world, God’s beloveds:
“May the love of God go before you and behind you, beneath you and above you.
On your right and on your left
When you rise and when you lie down.
May the love of God be with you
May the love of God be in you.
And now the prayer of Jesus:
Our Father which art in Heaven,
Eternal God, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Not only Father but Mother of us all,
May the hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
May the way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
May your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
May your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.
Amen.
*Final Doxology*
Scripture: Matthew 25:1-13
25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
25:3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;
25:4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
25:5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.
25:6 But at midnight there was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
25:7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.
25:8 The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
25:9 But the wise replied, 'No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'
25:10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.
25:11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.'
25:12 But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.'
25:13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.